CHRONOS / KAIROS

This is a book about different ways of experiencing time: Chronos / Kairos

Building upon my earlier work, Tidal Clock, Chronos / Kairos explores our relationship to time through photography and the physicality of a book. It consists of two photo series, the first shot every hour on the hour for 24 hours, the second shot over the course of the following day, at chosen opportune moments.

–Research & Writing, Photography, Graphic & Book Design –

The ancient Greeks understood that there are different ways to experience time and they used two words to describe this: Chronos and Kairos. Chronos is the sequential time of the clock. It is a quantitative measure that adds a surface layer of continuity and order to life. Someone once said that without time, everything would happen at once. The hours, minutes and nanoseconds of Chronos offer clear markers.

Chronos is the sequential time of the clock

kairos is a right or opportune moment

Kairos is more subtle. It is about timing. In Greek rhetoric, Kairos is a right or opportune moment. Kairos exists between or outside of Chronos. It cannot be measured except by its quality. Kairos is when everything happens.

"without time, everything would happen at once" – Albert Einstein

I shot all of the images in Chronos / Kairos over the course of two consecutive days with an Olympus XA2. The images in the Chronos series were shot every hour on the hour for 24 hours. The images captured in the Kairos series were shot over the course of the following day, at chosen opportune moments.